TRENTON, NJ - Despite the nation's highest jobless rate in 26 years, American workers saw some encouraging trends on Labor Day, according to a report released Sept. 7 by Rutgers University. In its second national labor scorecard, the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations said that for workers still collecting a paycheck, the average inflation-adjusted wages have actually increased and wage gaps for women and minorities have declined. Still, the jobless rate continues to rise.
The Labor Department said the unemployment rate jumped to 9.7 percent in August, the highest since 1983, reflecting a poor job market that will make it hard for the economy to begin a sustained recovery. According to the study, nearly 17 percent of Americans are unemployed, discouraged from seeking work or underemployed. That's up from 10 percent last year. According to the study, nearly 20 percent of workers have part-time jobs.
The Rutgers labor scorecard offered a mix of good and bad news: From January to June, there were 16.1 million new unemployment claims, a 72 percent increase from 2008:
• More than 1.2 million workers were in extended mass layoffs, more than double the 2008 figure. Minorities and people with disabilities were harder hit by job market stresses.
• The unemployment rate is 8.6 percent for whites; 14.5 percent for Blacks; 12.3 percent for Hispanics and 15.1 percent for people with disabilities.
• More than 6 percent of the work force wants to work full-time, but is working parttime because they can't find full-time work.
• Average inflation-adjusted earnings rose 5 percent from 2008 for non-supervisory workers, and median earnings for all wage and salary workers increased 3 percent.
• Black and Hispanic full-time workers earned 24 percent and 34 percent less than White workers a decade ago, respectively. Those figures have closed to 22 percent and 28 percent respectively. (AP)
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